2022 was my year of gentle, intentional, returning to live theatre.


 april 2022 saw me reunited in-person (tears, hugs and booster shots!) with my fellow collaborators/ARTISTS of the director’s theatre/writer’s theatre at our artistic home: the london performance studios.
valerie mccann, joseph connolly, josef mohammed, laura schuller and myself performed Death at five o’clock’  written and directed and set designed by than hussein clark, with assistant direction by andy mccredie, movement, vocal direction and production images by maya yoncali, with bespoke costumes and wigs by Adrian at Academy costumes, london.
About TDTWT:
The Director’s Theatre Writer’s Theatre is an international ensemble of actors who work under the artistic direction of Than Hussein Clark. They have devised scripted performances together for the last seven years and performed large scale productions in the United Kingdom, Europe, and the United States, primarily within the confines of the contemporary art world. Their performances have taken place in museums, galleries, theatres, and various site specific locations. Their work draws on continental post-dramatic aesthetics, queer theory, Meyerhold, and Grotowski, however these modes of operation are applied to ‘classic’ narrative situations, drawn from melodrama, serials, and classic dramatic texts.”-London Performance Studios
IMG_9768as regina morti in ‘death at five o’clock’. images: maya yoncali
IMG_9624as regina morti in ‘death at five o’clock’. image: maya yoncali
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IMG_9427in rehearsal for ‘Death at five o’clock- photo: maya yoncali.

The Jungle March to May 2019

The Jungle.

I had the privilege to perform in the internationally acclaimed production of ‘The Jungle‘ earlier this year. Written by Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson, Directed by Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin. It was a life-shifting, shattering, heart-exploding show and experience.

Catch-up / My last five projects: ‘Sordid Lives’, ‘Dernier Cri’, ‘Love at The Frankfurt Autoshow’, ‘The Lion in Winter’ and ‘Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again.’

Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again. -Crowded Fire Theatre.

Images by Alessandra Merlo and Adam Tolbert.

As Eleanor of Aquitaine in The Lion in Winter at Custom Made Theatre.

Images by Jay Yamada.

On set for ‘Love at The Frankfurt Auto-show’. Written and directed by long time collaborator Than Hussein Clark.

Dernier Cri-Third Cloud From The Left.

Image-Garaaj Gooch.

Sordid Lives at New Conservatory Theatre.

Image by Lois Tema.

Standing up to my standee. Sordid Lives, NCTC.

Tragédienne! A catch up overdue.

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Brooch I found at La Comédie Française, Paris.

Here is a selection of images from my work over the last year:

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Gesture work for ‘Said The Assassination’

Said The Assassination- Silencio, Paris

As Janet Grey in ‘Said The Assassination’- by Than Hussein Clark, Silencio, Paris.

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As Voltaire in ‘Emilie’ by Lauren Gunderson at RVP

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‘Paradise Street’ by Clive Barker.

Well, well. Since last I posted about M.I.T., I have been involved in some fantastic projects: I played Jude, in Clive Barker’s ‘Paradise Street’, (US Premier) directed by Stuart Bousel in December. Then I was Voltaire in Lauren Gunderson’s ‘Émilie du Châtelet Defends Her Life Tonight’ directed by Patricia Miller. Next was a devised play ‘Said The Assasinations’ a work in response to the refugee crisis by Than Hussein Clark, performed in David Lynch’s Silencio in Paris. Then I returned to the Bay Area and straight into ‘Sordid Lives’ by Del Shores, directed by Dennis Lickteig at NCTC. (Running through June 24th).

 

 

I have some very exciting projects in the pipeline, so check back for that news soon!

 

‘This Is It, Or Dawn At Bar Bazooka’-MIT LIST Visual Arts Centre.

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‘Theater or Cruelty (Cometh, Cometh, Cometh)’ (2016) presents a modular stage that is, in part, imagined to be the workers’ cantina at a fictional factory that produces the tragedy machine.The exhibition also serves as the premiere of This Is It or Dawn at Bar Bazuhka (2016), the group’s most recent theatrical production, an adaptation of Eugene O’Neill’s play The Iceman Cometh (1939), transposing the story from New York’s Greenwich Village to a gay nightclub on the Greek Island of Skiathos.’-Villa Design Group

 

My most recent project was another brand new work by Than Hussein Clark and Villa Design Group. We performed at the List Centre for Visual Arts at MIT in Boston. This marked Villa Design Group’s first institutional show in the US. With a cast of eight actors from across the globe, we spent two weeks devising and rehearsing in New Hampshire. The resulting performance was a wild and rich play with influences from Eugene O’Neill’s ‘The Iceman Cometh‘ and Czech writer Karel Čapek’s 1920’s Sci-Fi play ‘R.U.R.’ We also performed four original songs, karaoke-style in the manner of a Greek Chorus. Needless to say it was a challenging, fantastic experience.

“If a machine could write dramas, what would they be? This is the idea that London-based artist collective Villa Design Group explores with The Tragedy Machine, their waggish, new exhibition at the MIT List Visual Arts Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Spawned from a sci-fi worthy premise, the exhibition-meets-theatrical production springs out of the group’s reaction to their stridently academic venue”- Vice.com The Creators Project

Stay tuned for information on my next project ‘Paradise Street’. Directed by Stuart Bousel, this US premier by horror writer Clive Barker promises to be worth attending.

‘Debts-The Erotic Review Sinai’. Performance of a new work in Prague.

Constance
“Remember, ladies: Bravery is rewarded. Principle – Yes. Like John of Cantacuzenus, reluctant emperor of Byzantium charged with the protection of the regent – keep firm. It’s always aching. Steer the course. Steer the course well and you will arrive back in Alexandria still stitched together. You see sir, Miss Lana she is still so struck with grief, well, she imagines her twin is still here with her. Yes, A grief stricken slip of the tongue sir. I’m sorry sir, but miss Laura, she has died. There was an accident on the Nile”.- Constance (Played by Cat Luedtke)  ‘The Erotic Review Sinai’

I have just returned from Prague, Czech Republic, where I had the thrill to collaborate and perform in a new play by Than Hussein Clark. It was part of a presentation of new works: ‘Debts-The Erotic Review Sinai’ that the London and Hamburg based artist produced over the last two months during the artists production residency in the frame of A.I.R. FUTURA.

We rehearsed in an old auto factory that is now Karlin Studios, Krizikova. Our performance took place in the fabulous Studio Hrdinu, in The National Gallery.

Over the seven week rehearsal period, we developed a physical and vocal system of language which complimented the themes of the work. It was the most rigorous and glorious experience.

‘As Part of his exhibition Debts (Erotic Review Sinai) at Futura Contemporary Art Centre Prague, Than Hussein Clark will also premier a new three act dramatic work at Studio Hrdinů on October 15th at 7pm. Drawing on the Marionette plays of Maurice Maetlink, the chamber plays of August Strindberg, and the History of the Opera of the Fifth of May, Clark’s newest theatrical production tells the story of an incestuous Governess and her charge, whose grand tour of Egypt must be tragically cut short. They return home to he premier of an opera, after which only one will return to the Nile.

Starring: Ruth Connick

Catherine Luedtke

Valerie McCann

Josef Mohamed

With the Voice of Laura Schuller

English with Czech Subtitles

The following images represent a sliver of the work. IMG_8888 IMG_8895 IMG_8896 IMG_8905 IMG_8919 IMG_8933 IMG_8937 IMG_8942 IMG_8950 IMG_8951 IMG_8954 IMG_8957 IMG_8962 IMG_8975 IMG_8977 IMG_8980 IMG_8985 IMG_8989 IMG_8990 IMG_8992 IMG_9004 IMG_9005 IMG_9011 IMG_9013 IMG_9015 IMG_9016 IMG_9029 IMG_9034 IMG_9042 IMG_9063

‘The Erotic Review Sinai’ Written and Directed by Than Hussein Clark. Performed at Studio Hrdinu, The National Gallery, Prague. October 2015.